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							| Entry Date | Nick Name | Location |  
							| Sunday, March 20, 2016 |   | DeanAZ | Scottsdale, Arizona |  
     
						
							|   | Entry 33 of 90 |   |  |  |  |  
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							| Weather has been unusually warm this year.  However, overnight lows continued to be 40 or below.  Last season I kept the plants warm by keeping them inside the Rtech boxes (R-rating 5.7) along with 2 religious-type candles.  The boxes were inside a large hoop house covered in 6-mil plastic.  This year I thought I would just use the boxes until the weather warmed enough for a hoop house.  Bad decision. The Rtech boxes did help keep the air around the plant at about 60 degrees.  However, once I removed the box during the day, the temperature dropped to whatever we had on hand.  Unfortunately, that meant morning temperatures were between 35-40.  Daytime highs were 60.  Two weeks after I transplanted my pumpkins I erected my 6x8 hoop houses covered by 6-mil plastic. |  |  |